Gary Fargeon
'Gary "Angel" Fargeon '''was a witch, a relative of the Harmans, and the distant cousin of Gillian Lennox. He has made his first and only appearance in ''Dark Angel, as a deceased spirit and the book's antagonist. Appearance As per his partial Harman heritage, Gillian notes that Gary has "hair like unburnished gold" and, like her, violet eyes. He is described as being "classically beautiful", with "a face like some ancient Greek sculpture", although it is flawed in that it is "almost too sweet for a boy". Gary is shown to be physically "well-built without being overly muscly". Personality Early on in the book, Gary shows great lightheartedness, with a penchant for teasing and a wicked sarcastic streak; he is often encouraging Gillian with humorous quips and jokes. However, he is not without several negative aspects: due to his inability to move on, Gary can be highly destructive and unpredictable, his sarcasm changing to taunting threats, and utilizing his rage and unearthly power to physically make people do his bidding, even using this to first kill Gillian so he could have company (though he ultimately recants), and then later to try to kill Gillian's soulmate, David. Even before his death, he had described himself as a "partyin' guy", and after discovering he was a lost witch, he adopted the Night World creed of viewing humans as vermin. In spite of his anger and misery, and his tendency to do what he wants to get his way, he appears to care truly for his younger cousin, whom he had intended to mold into a full witch as he once was to stay with her, and ultimately trusts her to help him reach the afterlife. He also shows a very strong remorse and "self-hatred" for the accidental death of Paula Belizer, even though the child was a human. This guilt is so great, it traps Gary in the dimension between the living and the dead, as he had never had the chance to tell anyone of what he had done. ''Dark Angel'' Prior Events and Death Born in Pennsylvania, at age seventeen, Gary had been located and approached by members of Circle Daybreak. They informed Gary of his true heritage: he had been a descendent of one of the lost Harman twins, Emmeth, and was himself a witch. However, after learning this, Gary "told them to get lost", fully embracing the tenants of the Night World and its perceived superiority to humans. He eventually became a powerful witch, describing himself as "a quick learner". However, while practicing a fire elemental spell in the woods "where nothing could burn", when Paula came through chasing her dog. The girl accidentally broke the circle the spell was being cast in; before Gary could stop it the elemental had broken loose and immolated Paula. Frightened and in shock, Gary initially intended to take Paula's corpse to the hospital, but claimed he was "confused". Instead, he buried her body in the snow and afterwards returned home. However, he later went to a party and got heavily drunk; when he attempted to drive home, Gary "wrapped his car around a tree", inadvertently killing himself before he was able to tell anyone what became of Paula. Gary's spirit went to a liminal plane instead of passing on to the true afterlife. He could see everything, but he couldn't interact with anyone. He witnessed the search for Paula's body, but the police never found her. Gillian Gary became lonely, and crafted a devious plan to kill his cousin Gillian, as he was all alone and wanted company; when Gillian was walking home alone near the woods, he impersonated a child's voice to lure her into the forest, where she fell into a brook. Despite making her way out of the water, Gillian froze to death beneath a tree. However, once she had died and her spirit came to where he was trapped, Gary changed his mind, intercepted her soul, and sent her back, curing her of her hypothermia; he additionally followed Gillian back to earth. He convinced her that he was her guardian angel, guiding her words and helping her gain popularity, as well as the love of David Blackburn, after disposing of David's former girlfriend, Tanya, by revealing her infidelity to David. Revelations After manipulating Gillian into cursing Tanya and another girl, Kimberly, Gillian figures that 'Angel' is not all he says he is, although he tries to reassure her and insists he is her soulmate to soothe her. However, when she turns against him after he tries to lure her into a Night World club, Gary takes over Gillian's body while she drives, making her crash her car with the intention of murdering David so he can take over his body. Ultimately, Gary cannot bring himself to take David from Gillian, and David survives the crash; Gillian deduces that David is her real soulmate, rather than Gary. With the help of a local witch, Melusine, Gillian discovers that her guardian is in fact a ghost, not an angel, and goes to convince him to move on to the afterlife. Gillian also learns from Gary that he is her cousin, descended from her great-grandmother Elspeth's twin brother, and that Gary had orchestrated her death from the beginning so he wouldn't be alone anymore. Truth and Redemption Gary at first is resistant to Gillian's tactics to make him move on, threatening to conjure a snowstorm and kill people. Gillian screams at Gary, insisting he would never kill anyone, but Gary reluctantly informs Gillian that she's wrong: he had killed someone, which had caused his guilt and ethereal imprisonment. Bitterly, Gary reveals the truth behind the death of Paula Belizer, but he is terrified at the prospect of the family knowing the truth, afraid he will never be able to rest in peace himself because of what he had done. Finally, when she promises to stay with him through what he must face, Gary leads Gillian to Paula's body, after which she and David unearth the remains and summon the police. Paula's father arrives at the scene and mourns his daughter, forgiving whoever had harmed her. As he says this, Gillian sees Gary hovering over the man, himself weeping and apologizing repeatedly. After Mr. Belizer leaves, Gary also asks the forgiveness of his cousin, which she readily grants, admitting she will "miss" him. He tells her that her mother will recover, as will Tanya and Kimberly, and advises Gillian to seek out Melusine and Circle Daybreak. He tries to admit other secrets, but Gillian stops him, insistent on getting through on her own, to which Gary replies that she'll "do all right". He briefly glances at David, and explains to Gillian the real reason he didn't kill David: he hadn't wanted his cousin "to hate him forever". Gary is then drawn upwards into a magnificent light, finally redeemed and able to find peace beyond the world as it begins to snow. Trivia *Gary mentions to Gillian that he had been found by members of Circle Daybreak the year he died. This would be the first reference of the series of the Circle being a fully active organization. *Despite Gillian's assurance that Gary cannot kill, in truth Gary had killed two people by the time of her confrontation with him: Paula Belizer and Gillian herself (although the former's death was a tragic accident). *Among the characters of the series, Gary appears to bear the most similarities to the vampire Ash Redfern: both were Night People, embraced the laws of the Night World and once viewed humans as vermin, were responsible for killing at least one person and harming members of their families, boasted good-looks and a teasing sense of humor, were admitted party-goers, and both had to ultimately work to make amends for mistakes made in their pasts. They are also, due to the blood-tie between the Redferns and Harmans, cross-kin. Interestingly, Ash aids Gary's cousin and protégé, Gillian, against Gary's urgent opposition. Furthermore, both of their names translate to mean "spear" (Ash from Old English, Gary from Germanic). *Technically, under the witch matriarchal society, Gary's surname should actually be Baker, from his mother Sharon. Additionally, despite Gary's former prejudice against humans, it is very likely his mother had been human, thus making Gary at least half-human. *Although Gary has the signature violet eyes of the Harman bloodline, his hair, rather than match the typical Harman appearance by being silvery, is a golden blond shade. Appearances *''Dark Angel '' References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Antagonists Category:Former Lost Witches Category:Witches Category:Deceased Category:Spirits